Lokum

Turkish delight in its defining flavour: sugar and starch cooked slowly to a translucent gel, scented with rose water, set overnight, and cut into cubes rolled in icing sugar and starch

Origin: Turkey

From the journey of Rose.

Lokum, from the Arabic rāḥat al-ḥulqūm, comfort of the throat, is the Ottoman court's most travelled confection. Its manufacture is traditionally credited to Hacı Bekir, who opened his shop in the Bahçekapı quarter of Istanbul in 1777 and whose firm still trades under his name, and whose innovation was the use of refined sugar and cornstarch in place of the older honey and flour, giving the clear, quivering, translucent gel that the sweet is now known for. An English traveller of the nineteenth century is said to have carried cases of it home under the name Turkish delight, which is what the British have called it ever since. Its defining flavour, then as now, is rose: gül suyu, rose water, stirred in at the end of the cooking, sometimes with a little cochineal or beetroot for the pale pink that has become its signature. Lemon and bergamot, mastic, and pistachio and walnut versions all exist and are excellent, but rose is the original and the standard. The one thing the recipe demands is patience, because the starch and sugar must cook together slowly for well over an hour before the raw taste goes and the mixture turns clear; there is no way to hurry it, and every failed batch is a rushed one.

Ingredients

Syrup

600 g caster sugar
250 ml water
1 tsp lemon juice

Starch Paste

120 g cornflour
1 tsp cream of tartar
400 ml water (for the starch)

To Finish

3 tbsp rose water (distilled, not an essence)
2 drop natural pink food colouring, or 1 tsp beetroot juice (optional)

Coating

60 g icing sugar
40 g cornflour
1 pinch dried rose petals, to decorate (optional)

Method

Line a 20 cm square tin with parchment and oil it lightly. Warm the 600 g sugar with the 250 ml water and the lemon juice, stirring until dissolved, then boil without stirring to 118°C, the soft-ball stage. Take off the heat.
In a second large heavy pan, whisk the 120 g cornflour and the cream of tartar into the 400 ml of water until perfectly smooth, then cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens into a thick, gluey, opaque white paste.
Pour the hot syrup into the starch paste in a slow, thin stream, whisking hard all the time until completely smooth and combined.
Cook over the lowest possible heat, stirring every few minutes with a wooden spoon, for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, until the mixture turns from opaque white to a clear pale gold and is thick enough that a spoon drawn through leaves a channel that closes slowly. Stir in the rose water and the colouring.
Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the top, and leave uncovered at room temperature overnight, or at least 8 hours, to set. Sift the icing sugar and cornflour together, turn the slab out, cut into cubes with an oiled knife, and toss thoroughly in the coating.

Notes

Use a proper distilled rose water, Turkish, Iranian, or Lebanese; synthetic rose essence is unbearably soapy at this concentration. A sugar thermometer makes the syrup stage reliable and is worth having. The mixture is ready when it is genuinely translucent, and the commonest failure is impatience: undercooked lokum stays cloudy, tastes floury, and never sets properly. To make the pistachio version, stir 150 g of blanched pistachios through at the end with the rose water. Turkish households serve lokum with strong coffee and a glass of water, and it is offered at religious festivals, at weddings, and in the ritual of a funeral. Stored airtight in a cool cupboard rather than a refrigerator, it keeps a month and is best after two or three days.

The Gastrographer

Name: Lokum
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 36
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 600 g caster sugar; 250 ml water; 1 tsp lemon juice; 120 g cornflour; 1 tsp cream of tartar; 400 ml water (for the starch); 3 tbsp rose water (distilled, not an essence); 2 drop natural pink food colouring, or 1 tsp beetroot juice (optional); 60 g icing sugar; 40 g cornflour; 1 pinch dried rose petals, to decorate (optional)

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control